“Fitness Made Affordable & an Introduction to Flexible Dieting”

All right. So you’ve often heard from your parents, grandparents, that breakfast is the most  important meal of the day. Well, I’m here to tell you that it is not. In fact, most of the stuff that you hear about fitness is just pure marketing. It’s publicly accepted pseudo-science, that’s what I call it, and others may know it as “nutritionism.” It’s just an extremely millennial thing. So I’m here to tell you today that maintaining a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to be expensive. It doesn’t have to be confusing. And it can be broken down into simple steps and simple methods that you can try.

So right now you’ve probably heard of all of the health foods and all the super foods. The top 10 things that you should eat every day, like milk, like celery.And all the things that you should totally avoid if you want to stay healthy. You know, cupcakes, frosting, and chocolate, all of that. Well, I’m telling you that you can fit all of that if you practice flexible dieting. Because right now there is a lot of myths and a lot of propaganda out there that’s perpetrated by these fitness corporations that monetize off of your health. And that is not something that should be done. It’s not ethical. They shouldn’t be monetizing off of something that is supposed to be common knowledge and is something that you can control.

So you can see there, these are two examples of products that I deem unnecessary, but are heavily marketed and sold. They’re not cheap. $80 plus taxes, and maybe retail, branched amino acid, all these supplements that these companies are telling you to buy to stay in shape, and be fit, and get the six packs that you want. Well, It doesn’t have to be expensive and that’s not something they want you to know. What they want you to know is that you have to take these in order to reach your goal. And according to Forbes, this industry is profiting off of this confusion with 32 billion dollars annually, and by 2020, it is estimated to go up to 60 billion dollars.

And so why is this important? Well, it’s for your future, your well-being. According to Michael Schwartz — author, journalist, and producer, in defense of food and the documentary, Food Choices, this culture of “nutritionism” and health fanatic will perpetuate into the later generations. And so this doesn’t only affect you, it affects everyone else in the future, and everyone that’s following that that’s trying to stay in shape and get fit. And according to Dr. Pam Popper, PhD, and a former advocate for the food institute, now speaking against all these health supplements. She says that these fat-free supplements, all the creatine and stuff that you buy in stores, they are naturally occurring and you can buy them in grocery stores. They’re not in form supplements, they’re in food. And so that’s not something that these companies want you to know about.

So what can we do to fix this problem? Well, for one, we can avoid nutritionism. It’s not something that our ancestors did. It’s something that we should follow in case of, maybe, pregnancy, or in special cases. But for most of us, we just need to follow a paleo diet and, at the end of the day, it’s just calories in versus calories out, and proper dieting. That’s how we stay fit. There’s the solution of not blowing all your money and drilling a hole through your wallet by buying HMB, glutamine, all these supplements like beta hydroxy beta-methyl butyrate, which is another form of HMB. They’re extremely expensive, and according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, these supplements do not affect strength or body composition during resistance training. And further to add onto this, the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine says that glutamine supplementation does not benefit athletes in the short run, and as well as the long run with weight loss. And so you’re just spending $30 on supplements when you can just eat it off of natural sources, like branched chain amino acids are found in meats and milk products, dairy, and just things that occur in nature. You don’t need all these gadgets like Fitbits or whatever. And here’s the plan. Do not blow your wallet on these heavily marketed products. And practice calories in versus calories out. That is, by far, the only way that you can recondition your physique. Calories in is basically what you eat, and if you eat more than you’re burning, you’re going to gain fat and it just makes sense. If you eat less than what you’re burning off, you’re going to reduce fat. But if you maintain the protein level, if you’re vegetarian, you maintain on your beans. If you’re carnivores, a meat source. And so if you’re trying to maintain the way you are, just eat at maintenance. And it’s that simple. And also, to add onto this, something that I have been practicing for a while, it’s called intermittent fasting. And it goes back to my point that breakfast is heavily marketed to you and it is something that is sold. It is commercialized. And the point of intermittent fasting is that you’re having a feasting window in which it’s easier for you to restrict your calories or just enjoy your meals more because you’re having larger meals in a shorter amount of time. So you stop eating for 16 hours, and then you have an eight-hour window in which you can eat all your meals. And you can see how you can have a bigger meal, and more satiating, and they’re more satisfying. And the science behind it is, according to the US National Library of Medicine, during a fasting period, your insulin goes down. And insulin is what converts glucose, sugars, into fat. And while during this fasting period, when your insulin is reduced, blood goes below that threshold, this glucose, it’s too low. The opposite of insulin activates, and it’s called glucagon. But what this molecule does is that it converts your fat, your stored fat, into energy. And so while in this fasting period, you’re utilizing the fat that you’ve stored up or are already having, and hence, your insulin does not spike. Because insulin spikes every time you eat. And so having this short amount of time, it allows you to utilize the energy that’s stored. And some heavy advocates of this is Terry Crews, Christian Bale, most of the Hollywood actors, all the Marvel characters, have done intermittent fasting to recondition their body and to stay extremely lean and fit. And I wouldn’t advocate something that I haven’t tried myself. Hence, I inserted myself in there.

But what can you take away from this? Today’s a new beginning. Don’t blow your wallet. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It doesn’t have to be confusing. It’s just basically, at the end of the day, calories in versus calories out. Eat what you want within that eight-hour period, as long as it stays within your calories. So a piece of chocolate has around 70 calories. You eat that and you take it into account, and make sure you maintain the protein level, that’s how you maintain muscle mass. If you want to maintain, just eat — let’s say a person has a maintenance of around 2,000-2,500 calories. Just don’t exceed the limit and you won’t gain any fat. It’s that simple. You don’t have to buy into anything. And from a moral standpoint, as a business major, I don’t see it as right for these companies to benefit off of something that they are perpetuating, they’re creating their own demands. And hence, why I advise you all to take your fitness and health into your own hands. And you know, money can be earned, knowledge can be learned, but your health, your life, your happiness, your well-being, that cannot be bought and should not be bought. Some progress comes gradually, but it’s not inevitable. Thank you.